There's a world of weirdness out there if you know where to look - and the internet is a great place to start. Here's our round-up of the wackiest stories on the web today

This was the moment lightning struck the Vatican - hours after Pope Benedict XVI's bolt-from-the-blue resignation. The lightning touched the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, one of the holiest Catholic churches, after the Pope's shock admission he lacks strength to do the job. The Vatican stressed that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict's decision to quit - the first pontiff to do so in 600 years. The move surprised even his closest aides, even though Benedict, 85, had made clear in the past he would step down if he became too old or infirm.

A West Australian priest has been fined $1000 for biting off the ear of a fellow elderly clergyman in a dispute over a sprinkler. Thomas Henry Byrne, 81, was spared a criminal conviction after pleading guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm on Tuesday, because a Perth magistrate accepted dementia had played a central role in the attack. A confrontation was sparked between the two men after the victim moved some objects around the shared yard of their Dianella complex on November 9.

Drinking too much Coke killed mother of eight Natasha Harris, a New Zealand coroner has found. Ms Harris drank up to 10 litres of Coke every day – equal to more than twice the recommended safe daily limit of caffeine and almost 1 kilogram of sugar. She died aged 30, on February 25, 2010, from a cardiac arrest. Her partner, Christopher Hodgkinson, found her seated on the toilet, slumped against the wall and gasping for air. Natasha Harris, who died in February 2010, after drinking up to 10 litres of Coke a day. Coca-Cola has argued that the huge quantities of Coke drunk daily by Ms Harris day could not be proven to have contributed to her death. But in findings released on Tuesday, New Zealand coroner David Crerar said Ms Harris would not have died if it wasn’t for her dependence on Coke.

A dog filmed driving in a park has gone viral on the internet. Uploaded on YouTube by user ilovejanelle, the half-minute clip shows the canine - a year-old Australian Cattle Dog - riding on a toy green jeep. The video, which was posted yesterday (February 11), has already received positive comments.

An American television station has taken the unusual step of denying that a zombie apocalypse had begun - after hackers took over its emergency alert service to warn that dead bodies were attacking people in the area. KRTV, part of Montana Television Network was showing an episode of the Steve Wilkos chat show when it was interrupted by scrolling news messages, accompanied by a voiceover saying: “Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living. Follow the messages on screen that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered extremely dangerous.”

In scenes straight out of a horror film, an invasion of spiders descended in droves upon a small town in southern Brazil. And, as if that's not enough, the spiders came from above, appearing to rain out of the sky. When web designer Erick Reis left a friend’s house in Santo Antonio da Plantina, he glanced up and, to his horror, saw he was surrounded by large, formidable-looking spiders. The brave 20-year-old's video, available to watch below, shows the spiders spread out on huge webs between telephone poles, giving the appearance of the insects falling from the sky.